Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Jacque Miller
Date: March 24-25, 2009
Jacque and I boarded an Egyptian felucca, a traditional, large Egyptian wooden sailboat with one or two sails, for a fifteen mile overnight trip north on the Nile River towards Luxor. The canvas roof was removed during the day in let in sunshine. Jacque settled back to read and write in her trip logbook then we both enjoyed the views of the Nile as Aswan faded into the distance. Ninety percent of Egyptians live within a mile of the Nile and we could see that the Nile gives life to Egypt with its thin strip of fertile farm land. We befriended Ali, the captain’s teenage assistant. He could not speak much English but smiled a lot. I gave him my one-eyed binocular as a gift at the end of the boat ride.
We eventually pulled up to land and ate dinner on the second felucca which pulled up with food. After dinner we played dodgeball on the beach and local Nubians came to dance and sing Egyptian songs. We both danced and the Nubians taught Jacque to play the drum (Photo#3). Our group slept overnight on the felucca. The canvas roof was re-installed and thick blankets were passed out. Egypt was 90 degrees in the day but the desert was a cold 48 degrees at night.
The next morning we enjoyed a hot breakfast to warm us up. The boat took us farther north on the Nile River where we embarked about 12 miles south of Luxor. We hopped in a van and visited Edfu Temple (also called the Temple of Horus) one of the best preserved ancient monuments (Photo #4 & #5) built between 237 and 57 BC.
